Chapter 6 A Second Meeting

He found himself floating alone in an open field next to a pond. The moon hung halfway in the sky, a sliver crescent gem in a blue black sky littered with millions of stars.

"What is this place?" Danny wondered out loud. The sound of his own voice startled him. It had the odd echo that told him he was in ghost mode. A quick look into the pond confirmed that. His hair was snow white, and his eyes. Okay his eyes weren't perfectly green like they normally were. For some reason his glowing eyes showed blue in them swirling around like water and algae together.

"That's weird," he said to himself. Something strange was going on here. He had no memory of how he got to this place, and yet it almost seemed familiar. It was open desolate and beautiful. He looked up at the stars, and without thinking about it he floated a little higher to study them.

"You can stargaze another time Danny, we have to talk,"

The sound of another person's voice was startling. The one thing he noticed was that aside of crickets this place was silent. Danny spun in a complete circle trying to figure out who spoke, but already his mind was giving him the identity of this person. This one person he was supposed to be avoiding.

What in the world did she do to me? How did she get us here? Where are we for that matter? Danny could feel himself on the verge of panic. He swallowed hard and covered up his fear, trying to take on the courage and arrogance of his alter ego. I'm sort of in ghost mode, so if she wants to talk to Danny Phantom, she's gonna talk to Danny Phantom. "Come out and face me Miss Daily!" He shouted to the empty air showing more bravado than he felt. "Why did you bring me here? What do you want from me?"

"You're presuming of course I've taken you some place." A voice said behind him. Danny spun around to see Miss Daily dressed not in a blouse and skirt, but in a tight fitting catsuit of midnight blues and forest green camouflage, her long silver hair tied up in a bun. Like him she was floating in mid air, seated on some kind of flying carpet that matched her outfit.

"Where are we?" Danny demanded.

Miss Daily smiled amused. "It would take me too long to lecture you on paranormal metaphysics to give you an answer to your liking Danny," She said. "You and I have more important things to talk about."

Danny folded his arms across his chest and scowled at his math teacher. "You want to talk to me about something more important than how you managed to kidnap me from my home, change me into my ghost mode against my will, AND without my knowledge, and transport me into the middle of nowhere without anyone in my family waking up." Danny looked to his left, his right, and then sighed. "Well it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere, so talk."

Miss Daily chuckled at his attitude. "All right. I wanted to tell you that an enemy of yours just escaped prison, and he might be targeting you for revenge."

That wasn't what Danny was expecting at all. "Who is it?" He asked.

Miss Daily looked rather pensive at the obvious question. "I'd rather not say right now." She admitted. "I read your profile, and I think it will be less stressful for you to keep your focus on me right now and not him, but I don't like to take chances either."

"Great so this is less stressful?" Danny muttered. "That's all you wanted to tell me?"

"No, I'm going to give you a little more prep than that." Miss Daily said sadly. Before he could react Miss Daily made a gesture and the carpet or cloak she was sitting on moved forward until she was within inches of Danny. She reached out and grabbed both of his hands in hers.

"Danny listen to me," she said so earnestly he had to pay attention. "Listen and believe me when I tell you that you are stronger than your enemies. Not so much in body, but in mind and spirit. If you set your will against them, you will win!"

"Um okay," Danny said a little taken aback by her insistence. He tried to phase out of her hands and found he couldn't. "Wait a minute why can't I phase?"

"It's all right Danny," Miss Daily said. "You'll understand in a minute, but you have to listen to me. It's important. Don't give to fear either. If you let your fears get the better of you it weakens you, and then you're enemies will have you."

This was getting weirder by the minute. "Okay so you brought me here to warn me about an enemy whose identity you won't tell me, and to give me a pep talk about how I'm stronger than I think I am and not to be afraid. Can you let me go now?"

"I didn't said not to be afraid," Miss Daily said letting go of his hands and letting him drift back a little. "Being afraid is a good thing. It teaches you when to duck.. Just don't give into your fears. The one's you won't tell anyone about. If you feel you can't handle something on your own then ask for help. Sometimes the difference between wining and losing a battle is asking for help."

"Well I guess that makes sense," Danny said with a shrug. "Anything else?"

Miss Daily gestured for him to come closer. "Here I have to give this back to you." Danny drew just into arms length and saw that she had the glowing green marble he energized for her the day before. He took it gingerly from her. "I reset all my wards at home and at school, and I think Jazz and Sam will be a little happier knowing that I'm not holding on to this."

His hands closed around the marble realizing for a moment that it made him feel better too. There was something funny about this marble that he couldn't quiet make out, but he didn't really want to ask her about it. He had a feeling the answer was going to be complicated. "Okay, so how are you going to get me back home."

Miss Daily chuckled. "You really have no idea where you are now do you?" When Danny shook his head she said, "Okay getting back is easy but you'll have to do exactly what I say. "Close your eyes."

He wasn't sure why he was listening, but Danny nodded and closed his eyes.

"Take a deep breath," Miss Daily instructed, "Relax, now count backwards from ten to one."

Danny opened his eyes and looked puzzled at his teacher. "Are you serious?"

Miss Daily looked at him annoyed and amused at the same time. "Come on you know I'm a sorcerous. This is magic. Come down here and close your eyes."

Hoping he wasn't bitting off more than he could chew Danny floated down again. Miss Daily took his hands in hers gently this time. "Okay back to square one, close your eyes, deep breath relax..."

This time Danny obeyed. A warm safe feeling flowed into his mind. He tried to resist but it came with the idea that if he just went along with this everything would be okay. His eyes dropped shut and he took in a deep breath that only intensified the feeling of safety.

"Okay," Miss Daily's voice said from the darkness. "Count backwards from ten."

He didn't resist this time. "Ten, nine eight, seven, yawn, six, five four, yawwwn," as he counted he was beginning to feel tired. It was a comfortable warm sleepy sensation, and after the first few numbers he found he didn't want to stop, he just wanted to finish so he could go back to sleep. "three...two,"

"One?" Danny opened his eyes, sat up and looked at his surroundings. "He was in his own room, in his own bed.

"I was dreaming?" Danny asked the empty room. This was the strangest dream he ever had. He had a perfect recollection of the dream. It had been vivid, almost real. He had touched the grasses, felt Miss Daily's hands in his. He could almost still smell the flowers from the lonely field.

I am so not telling Sam and Jazz about this dream. That was way too freaky for my ta– hey what's in my hand?

Danny opened his left hand and saw the same glowing emerald orb Miss Daily just gave him in the dream.

Okay this dream has now officially gone beyond freaky.